Crazy and Interesting 9GAG Facts and How it Dominated Procrastination for Gen Y and X?

Most of us are probably familiar with all the nonsensical user generated content provided on one of the world’s biggest social paltforms. Launched on the 1st of July, 2008, 9GAG took the world by surprise, when it started out as a side project by 5 university students from Hong Kong, one of whom (Ray Chan, a Hong Kong businessman,) is the current CEO.

It was without the slightest doubt that in less than a decade, they’d be running a global entertainment giant. By April 2018, 9GAG was one of the most popular platforms on the internet, drawing 150 million users a month according to CNN. As of today it has more than 41 million Facebook and 50.4 million Instagram followers.

The first ever post on 9GAG on the 1st of July 2008. It was the beginning of a launch few believed to have such an impact on our daily lives.

In June 2019 there were around 139 million visitors on 9GAG, where the majority comes from Germany, USA, France, Brazil and Poland. According to SimilarWeb, it is the second most visited “Arts and Entertainment ” website on the world after Fanfiction.net.

Most upvoted post in the world is a sign with a reference to AC/DC’s Highway to Hell. Ever since then, there has been no recorded image, GIF or video that had received more upvotes. Some time ago, 9GAG used to have a ranking on the most voted list, but before it was removed, the most voted post used to be this one. It was uploaded on the 15th of September 2012.

Of course, the source of 9GAG’s success, Memes, did no originally emerge through the app. It existed throughout time and the term was coined in 1976 by no other than evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene. Originally it was an attempt to explain the way cultural information spreads. However the concept of the Internet meme was first proposed by Mike Godwin in the June 1993 issue of Wired.

Rise and Success

Initially a “Just for Fun” project, 9GAG’s co-founders began using 9GAG as a résumé-builder for the 500 Startups accelerator program. Following the 500 Startups accelerator program, the five members of 9GAG participated in Y Combinator’s incubator. After having its user-base increase to 70 million global unique visitors per month, they abandoned all other projects.

However, true success came knocking on the door in 2012 when they managed to raise $2.8 million from a Silicon Valley venture capital. That same year, 9GAG launched mobile applications on Android and iOS, which provided users with stream-lined versions of the website, as well as the ability to send messages to other users.

It is difficult to estimate the current value of the website and its revenue. Some speculations say its yearly revenue was $69,335,280 in June 2019. Others say it makes only 6 million dollars. Whatever the figures, their main source of revenue come from ads thanks to their high number of daily visitors estimated to be between 12-18 million per day.

Want to work for 9GAG – Apply below

If you would like to work for them and move to Silicon Valley or Hong Kong, (the headquarters of 9GAG) you have a chance. There are currently several vacant positions to fill, have a look here!